Barcelona star Lionel Messi has backed his former boss to be a big success at Manchester City, calling his new club ‘a great team’.

Guardiola agreed to join City in January before finally taking over from Manuel Pellegrini in the summer, and made a flying start with wins in his first 10 games, but a 4-0 Champions League hammering off Barcelona and an EFL Cup exit at the hands of Manchester United saw questions asked about his management.

Messi, quoted in the Sun, said: ‘City are a great team. They have always been a great team each year we have faced them but now, by having Pep, they will grow more through his work.’

Messi is also close friends with Manchester City’s star striker and fellow Argentina international, Sergio Aguero, who he praised alongside one of his club team-mates and partners in the vicious ‘MSN’ strike force, Luis Suarez.

The 29-year-old said: ‘Kun is a very simple and easy-going person, a great lad and, as a striker, one of the best. As is Luis.

‘They are different but, if you want to look at it like that, either of them can decide a game. They are both very decisive.’